In light of recent Facebook post on Ferguson, what is police policy on social media?

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. (KMOV.com) – In light of a recent controversial social media post on Ferguson, local police said they expect officers to conduct themselves in a professional manner on social media.

Social media policy for officers has come under renewed focus after a St. Louis County officer allegedly posted that he would spend his “Michael Brown bonus” on a trip to Defiance with his wife. That officer is now under investigation.

Jefferson County Glenn Boyer told News 4 he tells his officers to be careful about what they post online.

“We require all our employees to be professional on duty and off so that’s all we’re doing in our policy, making sure they adhere to that professional standard,” Boyer said. “There is a lot of gray area and that’s why we say you have to be professional on what you say and what you don’t say.”

Boyer said any questions about whether the policy violates the First Amendment rights of the officers is up to the courts to decide.

“If our policy is against their constitutional rights that would be something that the courts would have to decide, but certainly we’re going to mandate that they be professional all the time,” Boyer said.